Online Poker Game Rules

a guide to the basic poker game rules used by online poker rooms

Many new online poker players make the costly mistake of not knowing exactly how a game is played. Many of you likely have experience playing poker with friends and family members. For some the rules that they know are the same that the online poker rooms use but this is not always true. This section of the web site will cover the rules for the major poker games offered the the internet's best poker rooms. After reading through our poker rules guides you will be ready to hit the online poker tables. Winning $50 from Grandma and your Aunt Susan isn't going to be as easy as beating players that play 5-6 hours a day and have hundreds of thousands of hands under their belts.

General Poker Strategy Articles

This web site features several concept based poker strategy articles. These articles do not provide strategies for specific poker games, they cover general strategies you can use regardless of which game you play. If you want to read about tactics for specific card games please read our poker game strategy guide.

Best Poker Rooms for U.S. players in 2016

The poker rooms listed below are the best places to play poker at for Americans and players from abroad. Each of these three best 2016 poker rooms has something special to offer players. Pokerstars is the most popular/largest online poker room and has an excellent VIP program, perfect software and the fastest cash-outs in the industry (via e-checks). We are offering a 100% match on your first 3 deposits ($600 total). Betonline Poker is obviously much smaller than Pokerstars but their superb software includes 70+ casino games that you can play while you are at the poker tables. Their first deposit bonus is a 150% match up to $500. Bovada Poker is home to the world's worst Texas Hold'em players online. The action there is simply ridiculous at times. You won't find "easier to beat" competition anywhere else. They are offering a 100% bonus up to $1,000 and also have a solid VIP program. All three of these bonuses can only be redeemed by entering our special bonus codes, details can be found in each review.

Online Poker tutorial

If you are totally new to online poker there are a few things I want to fill you in on before you hit the tables. If you already play at one or more poker rooms you can skip this section. The first thing I want to discus is how online poker works. The poker room takes a small percentage of each pot, the this called the rake. If you are a tournament player you will be paying a buy-in fee. If a tournament has a $10 buy-in the buy-in fee will usually be $1 ($10+1). The rake is calculated differently at every poker room and the percentage they take out depends on many factors. Most rooms do not take any rake out if the hand doesn't reach the flop. If the hand is played out the rake is determined by how many players are in the pot, the stakes and the size of the pot. Most rooms take out 5% of each pot and caps that at $3. If you are playing at a $.10/.20 NL Hold'em table and a couple players go all-in the rake will likely be less than $.25, even if the total pot is over $100. Poker rooms set it up this way so that it is fair to all players.

What do poker rooms do with the rake?

The typical online poker room doesn't operate the same way the average company does. If a poker room earns $1,000,000/day in rake, only 5-10% of that is actual profit. This is because poker rooms have to keep player retention in mind. They give a majority of the rake back to players in the form of:

Freerolls

Bonuses

VIP Programs

Tournament Overlays

Promotions

It is similar to how brick and mortar casinos give you comps. I visit my local casino a couple times a month and I receive free meals, hotel rooms and even cash on a regular basis. The online poker rooms listed on this site go way beyond what the average offline casino offers.